I would like to see a system of unpowered cargo barges that can be attached together in any number and towed with a tug ship. These barges would persist in space if undocked. The tug may only dock with one barge at a time so if you are towing multiple barges you would have to leave some outside while you ferry them in. The tug could look something like a maud, only bigger and more powerful. The barges could be 200 or 300 cu or perhaps varying in size. The tugs top speed should not exceed 180m/s and it should have similar weapons to the various maud versions.
Should the tug be destroyed I envision the barges being only partially damaged and therefore able to be picked up by the first person along with a tug. Naturally, you could ruin someone's train by shooting the barge right behind the tug and watching it go zooming off under minimal load. The interface for the attaching and unattaching the bardges could use the turret interface with selections similar to the cargo interface.

Congratulations for describing the original concept for the marauder! Though at much less capacity.

I'd still like to see the rest of the implementation though I am skeptical about it being practical.

I will attempt to describe what I think you are asking.
Player Joe purchases his tug at the station. In that station there are also some barges for sale, one version having 200 cu storage and the Mk II version having 250. Joe buys a 200 cu barge and undocks from the station. About 100m out he opens his PDA and goes to the tactical tab where turrets are usually selected from. There he undocks from the barge. He then reenters the station and returns with another barge. He must then stop within 5 meters of the first barge and reopen the tactical tab. There he would be able to dock with the first barge. This would make a chain of two barges. He could then add more or mosey off across the verse upon his whim. I envision various factions selling various sized barges at varying faction levels.
Player Joe could also leave a barge floating in an empty sector with a cargo. Player Bill could come by later and pick it up. Or if Joe were killed in his tug while hauling two barges through Odia, the pirate who killed him could return with a tug and retrieve the partially damaged barges.

I like the idea. I do wish to ask what the major purposes of this could be used for?
I am fairly new so i am still trying to learn the prime purposes of hauling, mining, or even trading for the most part.

+1

+1 this is a way better idea than bigger slower XCs.

I see what you're trying to do here. Gain the 800cu capacity of a trident without ever building one. Nice try.

As long as they can be shot at and destroyed individually (armor of 5000 each), I don't have a problem with it.

+1 As long as I can pull barges with a trident.

A trident or XC lugging around one of these would be amusing, especially if they hit a roid field.

+1

Shot at and destroyed individually is a must. Add huge mass.
Also, make it so that you cannot "split" a large cu item across several barges. Make regular barge 50cu, so you can tow FFSA, but not FCP and that fun stuff.
No, it isn't a dent alternative. It is big, slow, unshielded, no turrets, and easy to loot.
The alternative is to make 500K roids be hollowed out by players and made into Capships. Roid bases look great!

Yes, I see each barge as being its own hull. Basically its just an empty shell with no slots for anything. As was said, it does not replace a dent, it has no shields. To those who wish to kill them, it would be easier to just kill the tug and grab the barges with your own tug. I envision each faction selling their own different barges, some with higher armor or capacity than others. The mass of the barge would be low, being an empty shell. The main restriction is when you string multiple fully loaded barges together with one tug. Each barge is essentially its own vessel, so no putting one widget in two different barges at once.

Wait, wait, did someone just agree with me?

Also, there must be no faction standing hit for blowing up any of the barges in nation spaces. It's not a person after all, so not a murder.

Is destruction of property not a punishable offense where you're from? It should be penalized, just much less than killing an actual ship.

Where I come from, nobody gets punished for trashing each other's furniture or even faces.

Being able to lug an enormous amount of cargo must come with a hefty price tag, my friend. Increasing risk is one way to raise the price.

I can't find the exact picture, but on the left side of this one, you can see that cargo crates were intended to be separate from ships: